Description:
We investigate how the total radio luminosity of AGN-powered radio sources depends on their accretion luminosity and the central black hole mass. We find that AGNs form two distinct and well separated sequences on the radio-loudness -- Eddington-ratio plane. We argue that these sequences mark the real upper bounds of radio-loudness of two distinct populations of AGNs: those hosted respectively by elliptical and disk galaxies. Both sequences show the same dependence of the radio-loudness on the Eddington ratio (an increase with decreasing Eddington ratio), which suggests that another parameter in addition to the accretion rate must play a role in determining the jet production efficiency in active galactic nuclei, and that this parameter is related to properties of the host galaxy. The revealed host-related radio dichotomy breaks down at high accretion rates where the dominant fraction of luminous quasars hosted by elliptical galaxies is radio quiet. We argue that the huge difference between the radio-loudness reachable by AGNs in disc and elliptical galaxies can be explained by the scenario according to which the spin of a black hole determines the outflows power, and central black holes can reach large spins only in early type galaxies (following major mergers), and not (in a statistical sense) in spiral galaxies.

Description:
We calculate line emission from relativistic accretion tori around Kerr black holes and investigate how the line profiles depend on the viewing inclination, spin of the central black hole, parameters describing the shape of the tori, and spatial distribution of line emissivity on the torus surface. We also compare the lines with those from thin accretion disks. Our calculations show that lines from tori and lines from thin disks share several common features. In particular, at low and moderate viewing inclination angles they both have asymmetric double-peaked profiles with a tall, sharp blue peak and a shorter red peak which has an extensive red wing. At high viewing inclination angles they both have very broad, asymmetric lines which can be roughly considered as single-peaked. Torus and disk lines may show very different red and blue line wings, but the differences are due to the models for relativistic tori and disks having differing inner boundary radii. Self-eclipse and lensing play some role in shaping the torus lines, but they are effective only at high inclination angles. If inner and outer radii of an accretion torus are the same as those of an accretion disk, their line profiles show substantial differences only when inclination angles are close to 90{sup o}, and those differences are manifested mostly at the central regions of the lines instead of the wings.

Description:
We address the issue of electromagnetic pulsar spindown by combining our experience from the two limiting idealized cases which have been studied in great extent in the past: that of an aligned rotator where ideal MHD conditions apply, and that of a misaligned rotator in vacuum. We construct a spindown formula that takes into account the misalignment of the magnetic and rotation axes, and the magnetospheric particle acceleration gaps. We show that near the death line aligned rotators spin down much slower than orthogonal ones. In order to test this approach, we use a simple Monte Carlo method to simulate the evolution of pulsars and find a good fit to the observed pulsar distribution in the P-{dot P} diagram without invoking magnetic field decay. Our model may also account for individual pulsars spinning down with braking index n &lt; 3, by allowing the corotating part of the magnetosphere to end inside the light cylinder. We discuss the role of magnetic reconnection in determining the pulsar braking index. We show, however, that n {approx} 3 remains a good approximation for the pulsar population as a whole. Moreover, we predict that pulsars near the death line have braking index values n &gt; 3, and that the older pulsar population has preferentially smaller magnetic inclination angles. We discuss possible signatures of such alignment in the existing pulsar data.